Coming down with the Dandy Warhols

"I didn't like London," McCabe says. "All the people looked unhealthy and unhappy. It was overcast and polluted. We're totally American kids. We even smell a lot worse than the Brits."

Still, the Warhols have gotten slagged pretty heavily by the press at times, both for being British wannabes and for making artsy, pretentious music. "There was this one [critic] who went on and on about how we just offended his universe," says Taylor. "He wrote, like, 'These guys play two chords for 20 minutes, then just put a bunch of effects over it.'"

"He totally understood us, but just didn't get it," Taylor says. "That's exactly why we formed this band."

As a live band, the Warhols might best be described as a combination of Bis and Stereolab. Amid the slow-moving waves of sound there's a consistent boppiness that keeps your head bouncing from side to side. Like Bis--a band that comes off infinitely better on stage than on your stereo--the Warhols have a live shine that Dandies Rule OK and Come Down just don't put across. Even songs like "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" come off as...enjoyable. "It's a fun song to play live," McCabe agrees.

"Any last messages to the world?" I ask her. "Like don't do heroin?"
She laughs and says, "Don't do a lot of heroin," then notices that drummer Eric Hedford is mysteriously missing from the room. "Where did Eric go?" she asks. "This is the time where he goes, 'If you're gonna go up...you gotta be prepared for the down.'